Congressional Republicans are brushing aside the spiking energy prices triggered by U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran over the weekend. Democrats, meanwhile, are escalating their election-year offensive on the issue.
When the U.S. and Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iran, some Democrats warned about the energy price impacts. Those predictions have come to pass, with an uptick in global prices for natural gas and crude oil, and Democrats are pouncing.
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), setting the tone for the GOP’s counter-messaging Monday, said he expected prices to return to prewar levels soon.
“I think that there will be, hopefully, a cessation of this in the not-too-distant future, at which time my assumption is that that’ll stabilize a bit,” Thune said. “Anything that happens in the Middle East seems to set off an increase in oil prices.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) brought up energy prices during his first floor speech following the attacks, saying Americans “don’t want a war that raises the price of gas at the pump.”
Oil prices spiked by more than 6 percent Monday. Natural gas prices in the United States saw a more modest increase. It’s unclear where they will go from here.
But with President Donald Trump warning of a conflict that could take weeks to resolve, Republicans face political peril during an election year focused on affordability.
“Trump is raising prices at home while razing countries abroad,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) posted on X. “In addition to untold casualties, Trump’s illegal war with Iran will lead to skyrocketing oil prices, and we know the Big Oil vultures are already circulating.”
On Capitol Hill on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration knew energy prices would be an issue. He said Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would manage a response to be announced Tuesday. Rubio did not specify what the response would be.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said the administration needs to do a lot more explaining.
“Is there a strategy? Is there a goal? Because right now, all of that seems missing, and in the meantime, we’re going to have American consumers paying very real costs with respect to energy,” said Heinrich.
“If you’re going to do that to people, you need to go on television and explain to them why it’s so goddamn important.”
But Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said that while he feels that the energy price volatility is important, “It seems to be second-tier right now.” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he feels “it’s a little soon to be saying that this is going to be a major issue.”
Like a number of energy industry analysts, some Republicans are pointing to policies boosting domestic energy production as a potential cushion that could soften the impact of the price volatility. Indeed, other recent instability in the Middle East has not translated in major price spikes.
“We’ve worked hard to be more self-sustaining so that we don’t have this,” said Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “We have the means to make our own supply. So I’m really not too worried about that.”
Democrats have been saying the U.S. would be even better off if Republicans and the administration were focusing on renewable sources of energy as much as fossil fuel production.
Trump took a victory lap on gasoline prices during his State of the Union address last week. A few days after the speech, he traveled to Texas with Wright to talk energy.
Wright then stopped at a gas station in Texas to pump fuel for drivers. The president gave authorization for the first strikes on Iran that Friday afternoon.
Capito acknowledged that voters could get frustrated if the war continues and it hits them at the pump.
“When they feel prices at the pump,” Capito said, “they don’t like it.”
Amelia Davidson, Nico Portuondo and Pavan Acharya contributed to this report.
